Will DiCaprio Wear A Black, Fluffy Dress For Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar Hoover Movie!?!?
...The piece goes on to discuss Universal's initial reticence towards the film - and their subsequent conflict about it now that Eastwood and DiCaprio are orbiting the project. Interesting stuff...be sure to take a look.
Late in life, and after his death, Hoover became an increasingly controversial figure. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI. He used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders, and to collect evidence using illegal methods. It is because of Hoover's long and controversial reign that FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.
Since the 1940s, unsubstantiated rumors have circulated that Hoover was a homosexual. It has been suggested that Clyde Tolson, an associate director of the FBI who was Hoover's heir, may also have been his lover.
Some authors have dismissed the rumors about Hoover's sexuality and his relationship with Tolson in particular as unlikely, while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed", and still others have reported the rumors without stating an opinion. Hoover described Tolson as his alter ego: the men not only worked closely together during the day, but also took meals, went to night clubs and vacationed together.
This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers, though some FBI employees who knew them, such as Mark Felt, say that the relationship was merely "brotherly".
Tolson inherited Hoover's estate and moved into his home, having accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery. Attorney Roy Cohn, an associate of Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and himself a closeted homosexual, opined that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship.
In his 1993 biography Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover, journalist Anthony Summers quoted a witness, "society divorcee" Susan Rosenstiel, (who later served time at Rikers Island for perjuring herself in a 1971 case) who claimed to have seen Hoover engaging in cross-dressing in the 1950s; she claimed that on two occasions she witnessed Hoover wearing a fluffy black dress with flounces and lace, stockings, high heels and a black curly wig, at homosexual orgies.
Not a good idea. Gorebull warming is likely to eliminate poor Leo before the film starts...
Over the past decade, I have reluctantly conceded Leo DiCaprio’s acting chops are genuine.
However, He didn’t remotely resemble Howard Hughes in that biopic and I don’t know how they’ll make him resemble J. Edgar Hoover no matter if he gains fifty pounds and the makeup department goes all out.
Doesn’t Hollywood have some genuinely good AND ugly actors? A younger Maury Chaikin or Danny Aiello or Charles Durning waiting in the wings?
Every time the Hoover character was on screen the lighting was such that he looked just so very evil and he spoke in funereal, angry tones. The only thing the film makers didn't have him doing was tossing poor widows out into the snow for not paying their rent.
I’ve read were the “J. Edgar Hoover is gay” rumor was started by the KGB to discredit Hoover.
When Hoover died, Nixon was determined that the FBI would never have another J. Edgar. Nixon was disturbed by the FBI's tactics and their collection of information, which Hoover used to his advantage. Mark Felt, who was later identified as "Deep Throat" in the Watergate saga, expected to move up to the director's spot when Hoover died. Nixon did not appoint him, specifically because he knew Felt intended to become the new J. Edgar, and continue the current FBI policies. It was this anger towards Nixon that motivated him to feed the story to Woodward and Bernstein.
Woodward and Bernstein, who painted themselves as fearless investigative reporters, were spoon fed the information by Felt, because he was determined to nail Nixon. When Felt came out as Deep Throat, he thought he would be a media star. The country was tired of Watergate, though, and Felt's cheap motivation of exacting revenge on Nixon for being passed over for a promotion made the press want to bury the story. Felt died in 2008, completely ignored. Good enough for him.
You might be interested in looking up the 1977 movie “The Private Files of J Edgar Hoover”. Broderick Crawford as Hoover.
A very low budget film but better then you might expect.
I wouldn't trust Anthony Summers any farther than I could throw an ice box.
LOL
J Edgar was boffing Hollywood...
Richard Hack presented evidence in his 2004 book “Puppetmaster – The Secret Life Of J. Edgar Hoover” to prove Hoover had a sexual relationship with Hollywood actress Dorothy Lamour and a possible intimate relationship with Lela Rogers, mother of actress Ginger Rogers.
You know, I don’t much care if someone is gay now. It is really really hard to care if someone long dead was gay.
Yeah, the evidence for the dress thing was always just that one ridiculous witness, but the Left attached themselves to it because it humiliated someone they didn’t like. The same humiliation of powerful people made this thing catch on in the public perception.
Like the Jefferson/Hemmings thing. The DNA test they did couldn’t distinguish parenthood between Thomas and one of his nephews, but it doesn’t matter. There is a group of people who believe what they want to believe even when the truth is easy to find.